RICK CLOYD SEEKS DISTRICT 150 SCHOOL BOARD 3rd DIST. SEAT
AS WRITE-IN CANDIDATE
Rick CloydPeoria – Citing a long record of community involvement, Rick Cloyd announced today he is a write-in candidate for the Peoria Public School District 150 Board of Education from the 3rd district.
Because no one filed nominating petitions for the expiring Board term of Jim Stowell, anyone seeking the office will have to run as a write-in candidate in the April 5 general election.
“I’m a lifelong resident of Peoria, and as a graduate of Hines Primary and Richwoods High School, I’m a product of District 150,” Cloyd said in announcing his candidacy.
“This community must have a healthy and accountable public school system, because all of us – students, parents and taxpayers — have a big stake in the effectiveness of our local schools,” he said.
For three years, he and his wife Sally have volunteered with Carl Cannon’s ELITE youth outreach. “Our experience with ELITE really opened my eyes to the potential of Peoria’s youth. District 150 can, and must, provide a safe and respectful environment of educational excellence to help students realize that potential,” Cloyd said. He also taught a Junior Achievement economics classroom course for Richwoods High School seniors.
“In my career with Caterpillar, and as a former vice president of Keystone Steel & Wire Company, I’ve gained the business analysis, personnel management, organizational strategy and marketing experience the School Board needs,” he said.
“District 150 spends approximately $1 million per school day. Many business leaders seriously question what stakeholders are getting for that investment. This may be the most critical public body in our community, and it needs people with business experience to provide fact-based and accountable governance,” Cloyd said.
Cloyd, 62, graduated cum laude from Bradley University with a degree in journalism, and earned an MBA with emphasis in finance from the University of Illinois Executive program. He is employed by Caterpillar Inc. in Strategy & Business Development. Prior to joining Caterpillar, Cloyd was vice president of sales and marketing for Keystone in Bartonville, where he worked for 25 years.
Cloyd has served the community in a number of capacities, including as a member of the Greater Peoria YMCA board, and a volunteer with several other civic and charitable organizations.
According to Dave Haney’s blog, Cloyd lives at 9172 N. Picture Ridge Road. Also running as a write-in candidate: Jody Pitcher, 6109 N. Heather Oak Drive. Pitcher is a Republican Precinct Committee Person and the organizer of the Peoria 9-12 Project.
Debbie “It’s-not-my-role-to-meet-with-my-constituents” Wolfmeyer was reelected president of the District 150 Board of Education at a special meeting on July 1. I haven’t seen this reported in the Journal Star, but I did see it reported on WEEK-TV and on the Peoria Story blog, which provided these details:
In a special meeting, Debbie Wolfmeyer was reelected president, with Linda Butler reelected vice president.
The vote was 4-3, with only Ross, Rachel Parker and Laura Petelle voting for Ross. The new board member, Chris Crawford, who was seated, voted for Wolfmeyer, along with Jim Stowell, Wolfmeyer and Butler.
You can read more reaction to the vote on Peoria Story.
In other District 150 news, I learned that June 30 was David Walvoord’s last day as legal counsel for the Board of Education. Also, board member David Gorenz has officially been succeeded by Chris Crawford as of July 1. Gorenz did not run for reelection.
The Peoria School District 150 Board of Education decided last month to discontinue live broadcasts of the school board meetings on public access cable television starting in May. Instead, they are going to show the meeting a week delayed, and they’re going to excise the public comment portion of the meeting — that is, they are going to censor part of the official meeting because they don’t want the public to see it.
However, since the school board meetings are open meetings, recordings can be made by any member of the public. Former Journal Star employee Elaine Hopkins made an audio recording of the public comments and posted it on her blog, Peoria Story. Kudos to her for keeping the public informed while the school board tries to keep the public in the dark. There are still a few kinks to work out; for instance, she’s uploaded the file in WAV format, which is uncompressed and makes for a hefty download. Once she learns to compress it into a reasonably-sized mp3 file, we’ll really be in business.
It’s funny. These comments used to be available only to those who watched the meeting live on Comcast Cable in Peoria. Now they’re available on demand to anyone in the world who wants to hear them. The school board’s attempt to suppress the broadcast of these comments has resulted in even wider distribution! I love irony.
Beginning next month, the school district is no longer televising its board meetings live on public television. Instead, the sometimes three-hour engagement will be taped and played a week later…. [Board president Debbie] Wolfmeyer said the district would eliminate about $4,200 in annual hourly wages for the technology staff members needed during the meetings as well as $8,000 for a new video board and some $10,000 for two new video cameras, which she said would be needed to continue live broadcasts.
What’s more, only the business portion of the meeting will be shown. Public comments would not be part of the recorded broadcast, Wolfmeyer said Monday.
This hardly needs any comment. The video board and cameras are capital expenditures, and small ones at that compared to the district’s budget. Furthermore, if they need new cameras, it makes no difference whether they’re broadcasting live or tape-delayed; that expense will need to be made anyway. The only operating cost appears to be the $4,200 annually for technology staff members (and wouldn’t they still need them, too, if they’re continuing to tape the meetings?). In other words, this move has little to do with cost savings. It’s simply a further manifestation of the district’s desire to minimize, if not eliminate, public input and public access to the school board meetings.
What cost savings come from editing out the public comment period? What cost savings come from broadcasting a tape of the meeting a week later instead of the next day — i.e., as soon after the meeting as possible? Why is this tiny expense being eliminated while the school continues to ignore significant opportunities for savings, such as eliminating the $800,000 paid to for-profit Edison Schools?
On WCBU news (89.9 FM) this morning, interim superintendent Norm Durflinger was saying that District 150 will defend itself against any suggestions that the City take over the school district at next week’s education symposium with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Mayor Jim Ardis, et. al. I wonder what his defense will be. More transparency? Nope. More accountability to the voters? Hardly. Successful policies leading to higher student achievement? Don’t make me laugh. The way the school board acts, I sometimes wonder if they’re not trying to get taken over by the City or State.
It never ceases to amaze me how the District can do something that ever so slightly gives hope that they’re turning a corner and rebuilding trust with the public (e.g., investigating allegations against the technology department), then turn around and do something to completely destroy any and all trust they’ve built up. It’s no surprise that this plan was outlined by Ms. Wolfmeyer, who doesn’t believe it’s her job to meet with her constituents.
District 150 may have violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act when they held their erroneously-titled “meet and greet” (it was more like a “talk and walk” or “read it and beat it”) this past Tuesday.
There’s a two-part test in the Open Meetings Act to determine when a gathering of board members becomes a “meeting” for purposes of the Act. First, there has to be a majority of a quorum. In District 150’s case, that would be three board members. Four board members were in attendance at the gathering in question: Debbie Wolfmeyer, Laura Petelle, Linda Butler, and Martha Ross. That constitutes not only a majority of a quorum, but a majority of the seven-member Board of Education. Second, the gathering has to be “held for the purpose of discussing public business.” It’s on this point that opinions vary.
District 150 officials, Billy Dennis of the Peoria Pundit, and many commenters on my blog insist that this gathering was not for the purpose of discussing public business. The superintendent candidate read a statement and the board members took questions from the press, but they didn’t discuss public business with each other — thus, no violation. Billy Dennis’ recent post indicates that the Attorney General’s office may be siding with District 150 on this matter. He quotes an e-mail he received from district spokesperson Stacey Shangraw where she says:
While we did not believe we were in violation of the Open Meetings Act, a few concerns were raised from external parties regarding our compliance of the OMA at our media event where we introduced Dr. Lathan. To ensure that our interpretation of the Act was accurate, I followed up with the Public Access Counselor.
This is the response I received today from Sarah Kaplan, a law clerk at the AG’s Chicago office, who told me she conferred with Lola Dada-Olley, an attorney in the AG’s Chicago office.
“After reviewing the information you provided us, it does not sound like the press conference (or future press conferences of this nature) violated the OMA….”
The key phrase here is: “After reviewing the information you provided us.” Of course, we don’t know what information was provided. Furthermore, we don’t know much about who’s giving the opinion. Lola Dada-Olley has been with the Attorney General’s office a little over a month, having started in January of this year according to LinkedIn. Can’t find anything on Sarah Kaplan the law clerk. However, the Public Access Counselor for Illinois is Cara Smith, and she’s in Springfield, not Chicago.
Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons thinks they did, in fact, violate the Open Meetings Act, according to the Journal Star:
“Violations of this act always involve quirky levels, and this one is no different,” Lyons said in an e-mail response, “. . . the meeting was clearly a public meeting with notification deficits and exclusion problems. The members present were in noncompliance of the act and the (State’s Attorney’s Office) could sanction, charge, or otherwise seek any level of ‘penalty’ or remedy available.” […]
“Even a casual gathering, such as a dinner party or coincidental meeting on the sidewalk, becomes a public meeting if a majority of a quorum of a public body (or a committee, etc. thereof) is present, and discussion occurs regarding business that is before, or is likely to come before, that public body,” Lyons said….
“A public body, no matter how well-intentioned, may not hold a public meeting and define for itself who may and may not attend the meeting. Public means everyone unless they, for cause, have been ejected or barred (disruption, etc.). Posting and distribution of notices for all public meetings are set out in the act and may not be narrowed by the public body.”
Lyons wasn’t relying on information he received from District 150 in writing his opinion, and he apparently thinks what was talked about during the gathering constituted a “discussion” of public business for purposes of the Act.
But whether or not you think they violated the Act, the big question is: Does it matter in this case? After all, the press was there, and nothing was done in secret, so isn’t this much ado about nothing?
And the answer is “yes and no.” If District 150 had built up trust and credibility with the public over a number of years, I’m sure everyone would give them the benefit of the doubt and just say it was an honest mistake. But District 150 hasn’t done that. It wasn’t that long ago that District 150 agreed in closed session to purchase properties on Prospect Road adjacent to Glen Oak Park, and then actually bought the properties, all in clear violation of the Open Meetings Act. They never apologized or admitted any fault. They subsequently approved the purchases in open session, something lawyers call post-action ratification. That did tremendous damage to the public’s trust. Since then, controversial votes based on questionable information (e.g., shortening school days supposedly to improve classroom instruction, closing Woodruff supposedly to save $2.7 million) have further eroded the board’s credibility. So when an apparent violation of the Open Meetings Act occurs now, even if it’s a little thing, it’s a big deal.
The public has every right to suspect that this latest gathering violated the Open Meetings Act, and that the violation was because of either (a) ignorance or (b) wanton disregard. The public wonders, “if they’ll abuse the Act in a little thing like this, what’s to stop them from abusing it in big things when nobody’s looking?”
District 150 has just released a statement (reprinted below) and a copy of the audit by Clifton Gunderson of the District’s Grade School Activity Funds.
DISTRICT STATEMENT – For Immediate Release – Wednesday, April 29, 2009
First, we need to clarify that Julie McArdle was not fired. Her contract was terminated without cause, pursuant to her employment contract.
The Board of Education and Administration stand behind their decision to terminate Principal Julie McArdle’s contract without cause. As an employer, we are bound to personnel laws that prohibit us from discussing or outlining reasons behind the decision to terminate her contract.
Regarding financial reviews – as part of routine procedures, our district used an outside accounting firm to conduct random, routine financial reviews of school activity funds. These reviews occur on a rotating basis every three-to-four years at all of our schools. We also request a review of these funds each time a new principal is named at a school or a building is closed.
On April 24, 2009 – (last Friday) – a police report was filed because 2007-2008 Lindbergh MS financial records are missing. These documents were reviewed in the summer of 2008 by the accounting firm during a routine review of the fund, which found no misuse of the school’s funds.
District staff members are diligently working with multiple sources to find documentation, receipts and statements that will assist in the reconstruction of the missing Lindbergh 2007-2008 financial documents. We are also hoping for a rapid conclusion of the Peoria Police Department’s investigation into our two filed reports.
Regarding the use of personal credit cards and District issued credit cards:
It is routine practice for school or District personnel to use a personal credit card to purchase items for our students, classrooms or other needed supplies, so long as appropriate and detailed documentation is kept.
There are currently nine different district-issued credit card accounts. The statements for these accounts are reviewed by the Business Manager and payments are processed by the District.
A decision had been made to recommend the termination of Mrs. McArdle’s contract prior to receiving any allegations of misconduct under the Illinois whistleblowers act.
My take: The report from Clifton Gunderson is not exactly a clean bill of health. Notice this statement near the end:
The above procedures were performed at the request of the Controller/Treasurer of the District. We make no representation regarding the sufficiency of the procedures for any purpose. We were not engaged to and did not conduct an examination, the objective of which would be the expression of an opinion of the financial statements of the Student Activity Funds of Lindbergh Middle School. Had we performed additional procedures, matters might have come to our attention that would be reported to the District.
So, if I’m reading this right, they’re not offering an opinion of the financial statements. In fact, given the parameters of what they were asked to do, it’s unlikely that they could have detected any fraud that might have been perpetrated, unless someone had actually written “stolen funds” in the ledger or on the memo line of the check. They pulled 20 disbursements at random and found two that had no supporting documentation. That’s ten percent of a random sampling that were defective. Shouldn’t that have been a tip off to the Controller/Treasurer that the controls in place were deficient?
As for the statement from the District, the last point is the most interesting. According to their statement, the decision had been made to terminate McArdle’s contract “prior to receiving any allegations of misconduct under the Illinois whistleblowers act.” This is pretty shaky. Obviously it’s designed to try to absolve the board of any impropriety; it says, “hey, we didn’t know anything about the charges against Mary Davis before we decided to terminate McArdle, so we should be held harmless.” But they did know about the charges before they voted to terminate the contract. The police reports were made on Friday, and the termination took place on Monday. Once they heard the charges against Davis, they could have held off and investigated the matter first. Instead, they went ahead and terminated the contract for reasons they cannot publicly by law disclose.
Why should they have held off? Because Davis is McArdle’s superior, and it’s most likely that the information on which the board based their termination decision was evaluative information received from Mary Davis and her supporters. If Davis were involved in wrongdoing as alleged, it stands to reason that she would have tried to keep that information from coming to light. One way would be to undermine the potential whistleblower (McArdle) and try to get her discharged. Caution should have been the order of the day.
As promised, Lindbergh Middle School Principal Julie McArdle filed suit against District 150 ( click here to read it) after being fired Monday — and it covers a lot more than just misappropriation of funds. The suit is filed against District 150, Superintendent Ken Hinton, Human Resources Director Tom Broderick, and Academic Officer Mary Davis.
Six incidents are alleged:
“Misappropriation of School Funds for Teacher’s Aide to Pay an Unpaid Student Teacher and Refusal to Spend Funds Authorized for Teacher’s Aid”
The story here is that teacher’s aides get paid, but student teachers do not. In this case, there was a woman who had worked as a teacher’s aide at Lindbergh who was also taking classes at Eureka College to become a teacher. When it came time to do her student teaching, she wanted to do so at Lindbergh. Mary Davis allegedly instructed McArdle to continue paying her as if she were still a teacher’s aide, even though she was actually student teaching. There were two problems with this: (1) it was an unauthorized expenditure of funds on District 150’s part, and (2) it violated the student teacher’s contract with Eureka College.
Falsification of Student Addresses to Deny Poorer Students Their Right to Opt Into Lindbergh Middle School Under the No Child Left Behind Act
Three children who did not live within Lindbergh School’s boundaries were allowed to attend without getting the proper boundary waivers. Instead, McArdle was instructed by Davis to list a false address for these students. “The result of the falsification of the three out of boundary students addresses in the District 150 records denied three poorer children the right to opt out of their school to attend the non-failing Lindbergh Middle School – which had the wealthiest residence and was the best Middle school in District 150 under the No Child Left Behind Act.”
Weekly Attendance at Lindbergh School by Private Counselor for Fees Paid by the Parents of the Students Contrary to District 150’s Obligation to Provide a Free Education
Mary Davis was allowing a private counselor to provide services for a fee. Parents of students were expected to pay the counselor directly.
Report to Superintendent and Peoria Police of Theft of District 150 Funds and Authority
The claim is that Mary Davis got a credit card in the name of Lindbergh Middle School without the knowledge of or approval from the district. Purchases and cash advances were made, and a $4,000+ payment was made on the card from the student activity fund for “miscellaneous items.” The itemized activity fund report for those “miscellaneous items” is missing.
McArdle’s Report of Mary Davis’ Misconduct and Theft of District Funds to Superintendent Hinton and Board Vice President Deb [Wolfmeyer]
It was reported via e-mail and had specific names and amounts listed. Nevertheless, when Hinton reported the apparent theft to the police, he said the person responsible was “unknown” and that it was for less than $300.
Policy Making Agents of District 150
This section says that Davis, Hinton, Broderick, and the D150 Board interfered with McArdle’s employment, resulting in her wrongful termination.
The suit alleges violation of McArdle’s rights to free speech, violation of the Illinois Whistleblower Act, and breach of contract. She’s asking for $550,000 in damages, plus attorney’s fees, and reinstatement to her job.
UPDATE: Here are the exhibits that go with the complaint that was filed:
Peoria Public Schools Board of Education member Martha Ross sent the following memo to Superintendent Ken Hinton and the other members of the board. I’m reprinting it here (with permission) for your information and comment:
Over the years I’ve served on the District 150 Board, when considering a vote, I have tried to make informed and sound decisions on all issues relating to the education and welfare of our children. What’s always foremost in my mind is that we hold the key to the future in how we treat, prepare and educate our students. I am of the belief that we pay now and use whatever resources we have to educate our students right or we pay later when we turn them out into the world unprepared to become productive citizens. I do realize that we cannot save all that come through our doors, but I feel that we are too quick to label, discard, discount, and or not give serious thought to what’s in their best interest.
My opinions are not intended to imply that any of you do not care and or are not interested in the children’s education, it is merely to voice my concerns, share my observations and offer my suggestions. That said, it is my opinion that some of the suggestions for “cutting” the budget bear a lot more thought to be able to avoid damaging the education and safety of our students.
The way I see it is that the following facts are apparent:
We have far fewer students than we had 10 years ago
We have far more staff than we had 10 years ago
We need to balance our budget using sound strategies that can be duplicated
We need to decrease this year’s proposed budget according to the financial information we have received
We need to make those decreases without risking the quality of education and or the safety of the students
We should value our staff, students, parents and community stakeholders
That said, I would like to offer some suggestions that have come from taking the time to think about this situation as well as listening to my community:
Immediately affect a complete moratorium on all hiring, and freeze wages. It will soon be time for the March mid-year increases and this would protect the district from that additional outlay for salaries.
Immediate and complete moratorium on all travel – except that paid for 100% by grants.
Really close Blaine, place the property on the market and move those staff members back to the DLC. That makes more sense from a long-term cost savings standpoint.
Keep all four high school sites but change the configuration to schools-within-schools
Proposed vocational program could be located within Woodruff as a school-within-a-school.
Current Fine Arts program could remain at Peoria High as a school-within-a-school.
Since it’s been implied that Peoria High can accommodate a lot more students, leave the current 9th grade academy as a school-within-a-school.
Create a 9th grade academy at Woodruff and Richwoods as a school-within-a-school with the separations needed to promote this concept.
Create the “small” high school concept for the 10 through 12 in all four schools.
Seek to qualify PHS and Woodruff as Title I schools to position them to receive more funded monies noted in President Obama’s economic stimulus proposal.
Decrease transportation expenses by developing a plan to establish k-8 neighborhood schools so that most children can walk.
List for sale or auction, real estate currently held by the district in inventory, including but not limited to the following parcels:
Riverfront (if any is left)
Prospect Road Property
Blaine Sumner Campus
Harrison – old campus and building site parcels
Irving campus (Future)
Kingman campus (Future)
Washington Gifted campus (to be explained later)
This would also result in a cost savings in insurance premium expense and any custodial/maintenance and utilities expenses – if any – incurred by these sites. Additionally, the sale of these parcels would return them to the tax rolls and create a revenue-enhancing opportunity to the district for an increase in EAV.
Look at savings related to the loss of the Medicaid Contract
Close Washington Gifted, returning the kids (and their test scores) to their home schools. Offer a gifted component at each neighborhood school as Mr. Hinton mentioned will be included in the new Harrison model. Cost to run Washington Gifted is $1.325M. District no longer receives separate funds to operate the program — all costs now accrue to Ed Fund.
The anticipated cost savings of a Peoria High/Woodruff merger are primarily derived from having larger classes (and hence fewer teachers). These savings can be achieved right now, in the current high schools without the disruption of these two schools which are located in the heart of the neighborhoods. Moreover, I am not suggesting that we do this in absence of a plan that includes working closely with the union groups, decreasing staff through attrition whenever possible and offering incentives.
Right sizing is going to require time and planning so that we do it right the first time.
The citizens of the Woodruff community and other supporters have expressed their willingness to pitch in to help us.
Finally, perhaps we should take advantage of the benefit of the HB0217 that is an act that amends the property tax code to allow a certain area to be named a special service area.
35 ILCS 200/27-60 provides that the corporate authorities for a municipality that establishes a special services area may petition the circuit court to make the Woodruff community a special service area. This could bring in the immediate revenue needed to provide the time needed to address the right sizing of the District as well as time to develop a sustainable plan for District 150’s future health.
This plan makes a lot of sense. Of the plans I’ve heard so far to fix District 150’s budget woes, I like this one the best. It’s worth some serious consideration. I especially like items 1, 2, 3, 11, and 12 because they deal directly with many of the issues on which District 150 has received the most criticism.
Holy Toledo. I don’t generally read the Peoria Story blog, but Billy Dennis quoted a portion of this post, and it was so shocking I had to read more.
I’ve read past District 150 audit reports (available here*), and they’ve always been bad — bad enough that it makes me wonder why in the world Guy Cahill is still employed by the district. For example, here’s a note from the June 30, 2007 audit report:
In an ideal control setting, the District would have personnel possessing a thorough understanding of applicable generally accepted accounting principles staying abreast of recent accounting developments. Such personnel would perform a comprehensive review procedure to ensure that in the preparation of its annual financial statements that such statements, including disclosures, are complete and accurate.
And this:
The overall internal controls over the District’s accounting system are not adequate to ensure that misstatements caused by error or fraud, in amounts that would be material to the financial statements, may occur and not be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of performing their assigned functions.
That was the second year in a row the district got that last note. The 2006-07 audit was also the one that reported the district’s misallocation of over a half million dollars in Title I funds. But evidently the latest audit report takes the cake:
“The November 14, 2008 audit report, prepared by Clifton Gunderson LLP, for the 2007-08 school year, shows the District #150 administrators failed to budget $10,410,849 when budgeting for Teachers Retirement Service (TRS) pension contributions. […]
“This was not a new expense – the district has been budgeting for “on-behalf of” contributions to TRS for years. Their actual expenditure for this item during the 2006-07 school year was $7,264,468. How did they “forget” to budget over $10 million in expenditures – and revenue – for the 2007-08 school year?
“Further, how and why did the TRS provision grow over $3 million in one year? Did teacher salaries increase so much in one year that 10% of that increase amounted to $3 million?
Since the revenues and expenses for “on-behalf of” contributions to TRS effectively cancel each other out, the issue is more about transparency than anything else. If the public were to see that this fund grew by over 43% in one year, they might start asking questions — like, “why is that amount rising so dramatically?” and “what other information is the district hiding?” With omissions this great, how can we believe anything the school administration says about the budget and the need to close a high school? Incidentally, the “on-behalf-of” contributions are not on the 2008-09 budget that was submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), either.
Something I’ve always wondered is how District 150 can keep sending incomplete reports to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). For instance, the last three years (2006-2008) of the district’s Annual Statement of Affairs (available here*) leaves required information completely blank, including salary schedules and non-salary payments over $2500. It is required by the State that the district report this information, and yet it hasn’t for multiple years, keeping taxpayers (and the State regulating agency itself) in the dark. With as many administrators and consultants as District 150 has, surely someone could be tasked with completing required reports.
These questions deserve answers. The information reported on Peoria Story has been forwarded to District officials. It will be interesting to hear their response.
*Note: If you want to look up the financial data or Statement of Affairs reports on the ISBE website, they’re listed by the district’s code number, which is 48-072-1500-25.
The Peoria School District 150 Board of Education decided last month to discontinue live broadcasts of the school board meetings on public access cable television starting in May. Instead, they are going to show the meeting a week delayed, and they’re going to excise the public comment portion of the meeting — that is, they are going to censor part of the official meeting because they don’t want the public to see it.
statement